Similar species: Corallorhiza wisteriana is somewhat similar to C. odontorhiza and its varieties, but that species has a shorter central sepal (under 4.5 mm) with only one vein, the flowers are typically more closed, and it blooms in fall, not early spring. Often C. wisteriana is misidentified as C. maculata or C. trifida, but both of those species have two small lateral lobes or teeth on the lip petal, and the lateral sepals are not upcurved, but rather spreading or curved downward.

Flowering: April to June

Habitat and ecology: Extremely rare, only known from St. Joseph Co., IN in damp woods. Just south of our area it is found in rich mesic woodlands and dry-mesic areas with oak and hickory and ample covering of leaf litter.

Occurence in the Chicago region: native

Notes: Corallorhiza wisteriana has a much more southern distribution, and aside from the disjunct population collected in St. Joseph Co., IN, the nearest populations are in La Salle Co., IL, just south of the Chicago Region. However this is still about 100 miles north from the rest of the more contiguous populations of the species. Yet it is not entirely implausible that populations may exist in the dune region of Indiana waiting to be discovered. The major barrier to sustainable populations in our area may be the presumed inability of C. wisteriana to tolerate cold since the species range is mostly south of Pleistocene glaciated areas (Homoya 1993).

Etymology: Corallorhiza comes from the Greek words korallion, meaning coral, and rhiza, meaning root, in reference to the branching, underground rhizome, which has a similar appearance to coral. Wisteriana is named in honor of American botanist Charles Wister.

Author: The Field Museum

From Flora of Indiana (1940) by Charles C. Deam

Infrequent and rather local in the southern third of the state, rarely in small colonies, but, where found, the specimens are usually a rod or more apart. It grows in humus, generally on wooded, beech slopes, sometimes in black or black and white oak woods, and rarely in white oak woods. This is by far our most common coralroot.

Stem 1-4 dm, purple or reddish; infl 3-7 cm, with 10-15 fls; sep and lateral pet extending forward over the column, scarcely spreading, narrowly lanceolate, 5-7.5 mm, greenish-yellowish, tinged with purple and marked with short purple lines; lip deflexed, about as long as the sep, narrowed below into a slender claw more than half as long as the blade, the latter broadly oval, crenulate, notched at the rounded summit, white, dotted with purple. Damp woods; Pa. and s. N.J. to Fla., w. to se. Nebr., Okla., and Tex., and in the w. cordillera. Apr.-June.